Prof. Jorge Ruiz Patiño
Sociologist and Professor at Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia (Colombia), where he teaches sociological theory. He holds an MA in Political Studies from the Pontifical Javeriana University (Colombia) and a PhD in Social Science Research (Sociology) from the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO, Mexico). His research focuses on the sociology and cultural history of leisure, sport, and tourism. He is the author of La política del sport. Élites y deporte en la construcción de la nación colombiana, 1903–1925 (2010) and Las desesperantes horas de ocio. Tiempo y diversión en Bogotá, 1849–1900 (2021).
Email: jorge.ruiz@unad.edu.co; jorge5ruiz@yahoo.com.mx
Much has been written about the relationship between soccer and nationality. One could say it is the favorite topic of social studies of sports. Soccer can create a kind of symbolic and emotional unity when national teams compete in various types of tournaments. It seems that social, cultural, and political differences are temporarily set aside, and a powerful emotional bond is forged among individuals from the same country. There appears to be no dispute about this. Soccer matches between national teams from different countries foster a sense of internal identity thanks to the external reference point of an opponent.
This seems to be exacerbated during World Cup matches, when emotional fervor reaches levels higher than in any other soccer tournament. It is true that the media, corporate advertising, and governments are effective vehicles for national reaffirmation through soccer. Historical and geopolitical tensions provide an excellent crucible for the expression of nationalism, as well as for alignments and solidarity among like-minded groups from different nations. Emotion and memory form the foundation of national soccer identity, while communication, consumption, and politics serve as its catalysts at various levels and intensities.
The resonant moments of national identity experienced during the World Cup season tend to be fleeting and are merely the flip side of internal tensions. It can be said that in societies with high social integration and low political polarization, the resonance of soccer effectively renews national bonds, whereas this effectiveness reaches its limit in socially and politically fragmented societies. This would suggest that the relationship between soccer and national identity varies according to the level of integration or fragmentation found in a specific society, and that this relationship is often presented as a strategic marketing ploy or a matter of political interest.
Colombia is an example of this. While national soccer identity is promoted primarily by the media and various national and transnational business sectors, the Colombian national soccer team becomes a silent object of cultural and political contention. The presidential election in Colombia takes place every four years and coincides with the World Cup, which means that the symbolic momentum generated by the national team’s participation in the World Cup (of course, when it manages to qualify for the tournament) is caught up in social and political tensions.
This has occurred with particular intensity since 2014, when the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos began negotiations with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country’s oldest and most powerful guerrilla group at the time. The negotiations and subsequent peace agreement between the government and this illegal armed group led to political division among the elites and within Colombian society, and it was with this that the Colombian national team ceased to embody the idea of national identity as it had done during its World Cup appearances in 1962 (Chile), 1990 (Italy), 1994 (U.S.), and 1998 (France).
In the 2014 (Brazil), 2018 (Russia), and 2026 (U.S./Canada/Mexico) World Cups, the Colombian national team’s participation provided a framework for the public expression of the political tensions that emerged at that time. During the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the national team’s strong performance was framed within the expectations and hopes that a broad sector of Colombian society held regarding the peace negotiations, equating the athletic and moral virtues of the national team’s players with the benefits that a successful outcome of the negotiations with the FARC would bring for the country’s future. At that time, the Colombian national team became the focal point of the discourse on the future disseminated by a specific sector of Colombian society.
During the 2018 World Cup in Russia, the first cracks in the peace agreement signed two years earlier and the rising number of murders of social leaders and peace signatories toward the end of Juan Manuel Santos’s administration were framed within a pessimistic vision of the future of Colombian society that aligned discursively with the Colombian national team’s modest results, all of this taking place during that year’s electoral process, which would result in Iván Duque’s victory. Sectors critical of the peace negotiations and the implementation of the agreements saw the Colombian national soccer team as a useful platform to communicate and seek to impose a specific vision of the country’s future course
The Colombian national team’s qualification for the 2026 World Cup came amid a deeply divided society following the so-called “social uprising” in 2021 and intense political struggles during the country’s first-ever leftist administration, led by President Gustavo Petro (2022–2026). A key development in the 2026 election was that one of the frontrunners for the presidency (and eventual winner)—a critic of the left-wing government and a representative of the country’s new right—successfully appropriated the national team’s jersey as a symbol of his political campaign and governing platform. Ultimately, it is very possible that, both now and in the near future, the Colombian national soccer team will be identified with that political sector, and that national identity will consist solely of the particular vision of a political faction in power.
